Monday, July 12, 2010

In Memorium: Harvey Pekar

Harvey Award winning underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar passed away today at the age of 70. Pekar was best known for his autobiographical American Splendor series, which in 2003, inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name starring Paul Giamatti. Pekar was also a highly regarded music and literary critic.

His "American Splendor" series had its roots in Pekar's friendship with Robert Crumb, the seminal underground comic-book artist. The two first met in 1962 when Crumb was working for American Greetings in Cleveland. At the time, Crumb was just beginning to explore the possibilities of comics, which would later lead to such groundbreaking work as his "Mr. Natural" and "Fritz the Cat."

When Pekar, inspired by Crumb's work, began writing his own nascent strip in 1972, Crumb illustrated it and also contributed to Pekar's first full-fledged books, which Pekar started publishing annually in 1976.

He appeared in a string of amusing and controversial episodes of David Letterman's late night talk show during the late 1980's, riling parent company GE when Pekar was vocally critical of the company.

I was fortunate enough to meet Harvey Pekar once during the mid-1990's in Atlanta, GA. The Catacombs expresses its deepest condolences to his family, friends and fans.

How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!